It is nice to see Miller pitching again. I am not too concerned over a one inning statline. It has been a long time since he has pitched in a real game and it may take a while to get his command back. Any word when Knapp is going to make his season debut? What about Alexander Perez?

I hope I am not out in right field, Tony, (sorry..had to use a baseball analogy) but I think Soto only pitched 2/3 of an inning because the game was suspended from Tuesday night, when he started the game. The Indians did not want to use him to start the game the following night (Wed) which was picked up in the bottom of the 1st inning.

stoike wrote:I hope I am not out in right field, Tony, (sorry..had to use a baseball analogy) but I think Soto only pitched 2/3 of an inning because the game was suspended from Tuesday night, when he started the game. The Indians did not want to use him to start the game the following night (Wed) which was picked up in the bottom of the 1st inning.

You are correct. I honestly did not realize that.....still not following all the games closely. I would have been on top of this a few weeks back! ha

Brach is an interesting guy. Very under-rated and unheralded a la Josh Tomlin when he was in the lower levels because he lacks great stuff. But, maybe he is another Tomlin? I don't think so as he is not as athletic, but there are certainly some similarities.

Think for now on we should be talking about him in the Akron Aero thread but obviously that is not my decision to make. If he has another couple of good starts though I think you HAVE to move him to Akron. He is just to good to be in Kinston anylonger IMO. Could they just end up swapping Packer with Pomeranz? I really doubt it, but with the all the talent at the top of system (can we please trade Huff???) whatever move is made will be interesting.

Now, he does seem to have one noticable weakness, controlling the running game. Working on that has got to be a priority. Is his delivery that long or? Also how is his pick-off move, most lefties have good ones, how does his rank? Bottom line Kinston is not going to challenge Pomeranz and he would probably put up pretty similar numbers in Akron.

Mike, the Indians are asking Pomeranz to work on controlling the running game, his pickoff move, his fastball command, and developing his changeup. As for Miller, he has been up to 95 MPH. Slider is a work in progress as he is still trying to get the feel for it back as he can't bend his middle finger (the last digit is stationary).

Prosecutor wrote:Maybe with a stiff middle finger he can develop some kind of unhittable pitch. Didn't Bob Wickman have a partial finger or something that enabled him to throw a pitch most pitchers can't throw?

During a childhood farming accident, Wickman lost part of his index finger on his right hand, to which he credited much of the sinking motion on his fastball from wiki

Prosecutor wrote:Maybe with a stiff middle finger he can develop some kind of unhittable pitch. Didn't Bob Wickman have a partial finger or something that enabled him to throw a pitch most pitchers can't throw?

During a childhood farming accident, Wickman lost part of his index finger on his right hand, to which he credited much of the sinking motion on his fastball from wiki

I believe the obvious thing to do here, is amputate that last digit on that finger and get that ball sinking..

Prosecutor wrote:Maybe with a stiff middle finger he can develop some kind of unhittable pitch. Didn't Bob Wickman have a partial finger or something that enabled him to throw a pitch most pitchers can't throw?

During a childhood farming accident, Wickman lost part of his index finger on his right hand, to which he credited much of the sinking motion on his fastball from wiki

I believe the obvious thing to do here, is amputate that last digit on that finger and get that ball sinking..

TonyIPI wrote:Actually, the Indians plan to move quickly with him. If he puts another 2-3 good outings together, he's likely to go to Akron very soon.

color me surprised, do they think he could help this year?

If Miller is healthy and effective, do you really want him still pitching in the minors?? I think he gets up to the show so he can be utilized/ used before the next injury happens.

Correct. Miller is a FA at end of year....plus no idea when injury may resurface. They are on record as saying if he pitches well in 4-5 game stint at Kinston he will quickly move to Akron (and Columbus).

TonyIPI wrote:Actually, the Indians plan to move quickly with him. If he puts another 2-3 good outings together, he's likely to go to Akron very soon.

color me surprised, do they think he could help this year?

If Miller is healthy and effective, do you really want him still pitching in the minors?? I think he gets up to the show so he can be utilized/ used before the next injury happens.

Correct. Miller is a FA at end of year....plus no idea when injury may resurface. They are on record as saying if he pitches well in 4-5 game stint at Kinston he will quickly move to Akron (and Columbus).

Fair enough, who knows maybe he can be our version of Price, Krod, Joba seems every year their is one amazing arm at the back of the pen that has an impact in Sept and Oct

artgold wrote:In his last four outings, Miller has pitched 6 innings, giving up 2 hits and 2 walks while striking out 9 batters.

Hate to get excited again about him, but...

Indians said if he strung together 4-5 good outings in a row he'd move up....we'll see what happens here soon. (Though it should be noted that good outings are not always considered to be statistical good outings.)

criznit2009 wrote:what a night for Soto 7IP 3H 1BB 8K!! Really starting to like this kid!

The Indians trade of Jhonny Peralta to the tigers for Giovanni Soto, a 19 year old, 6'3 155 pound string bean lefty with five pitches, didn't look like much at the time of the trade. If anything, it was called a salary dump and was so panned by the less than optimistic Friends of the Feather. Since then, Gio has added 25 pounds of muscle and has raised his FB velo from the mid 80's to the low 90's while maintaining good command of four pitches for his age.. You can't ever have enough pitching..and you certainly can't ever have enough lefty starters of Soto's projected caliber. At the start of this season, he was ranked the 27th best prospect in the Indians system by our group of 17 amateurs.. his star is on the rise.. While it would be "homer-esque" to call this trade in favor or the Indians, the trade is moving more towards a "draw", imho...

GeronimoSon wrote: The Indians trade of Jhonny Peralta to the tigers for Giovanni Soto, a 19 year old, 6'3 155 pound string bean lefty with five pitches, didn't look like much at the time of the trade. If anything, it was called a salary dump and was so panned by the less than optimistic Friends of the Feather. Since then, Gio has added 25 pounds of muscle and has raised his FB velo from the mid 80's to the low 90's while maintaining good command of four pitches for his age.. You can't ever have enough pitching..and you certainly can't ever have enough lefty starters of Soto's projected caliber. At the start of this season, he was ranked the 27th best prospect in the Indians system by our group of 17 amateurs.. his star is on the rise.. While it would be "homer-esque" to call this trade in favor or the Indians, the trade is moving more towards a "draw", imho...

Call me "homeresque" then, because I disagree about the trade moving towards a draw. It was a win for the Indians from the beginning. Peralta is making $5.25 million for Detroit this year. No way the Tribe would have paid him that much to play 3B for one season as a placeholder for Chiz. They got Hannahan instead for a fraction of the cost and he's working out very well.

What they gave up for Soto was one-half season of having to watch Nix and Valbuena attempting to play 3rd base in place of Peralta. It was brutal but it didn't matter since they were playing for 4th place. Trading the last half of Peralta's 2010 season for a 19-year-old lefty with four pitches and a major league upside was a win from the beginning, and it's only going to get better.

By the way, Peralta is off to a great start for perhaps the first time in his career. A notoriously slow starter, he's hitting .305 with an OPS of .882. He's on pace for 24 HRs and 91 RBI, which would be the best year of his career. And he's still only 28. It was a good trade for both teams, assuming the Tribe would never have signed Jhonny to a $5 million deal.

GeronimoSon wrote: The Indians trade of Jhonny Peralta to the tigers for Giovanni Soto, a 19 year old, 6'3 155 pound string bean lefty with five pitches, didn't look like much at the time of the trade. If anything, it was called a salary dump and was so panned by the less than optimistic Friends of the Feather. Since then, Gio has added 25 pounds of muscle and has raised his FB velo from the mid 80's to the low 90's while maintaining good command of four pitches for his age.. You can't ever have enough pitching..and you certainly can't ever have enough lefty starters of Soto's projected caliber. At the start of this season, he was ranked the 27th best prospect in the Indians system by our group of 17 amateurs.. his star is on the rise.. While it would be "homer-esque" to call this trade in favor or the Indians, the trade is moving more towards a "draw", imho...

Call me "homeresque" then, because I disagree about the trade moving towards a draw. It was a win for the Indians from the beginning. Peralta is making $5.25 million for Detroit this year. No way the Tribe would have paid him that much to play 3B for one season as a placeholder for Chiz. They got Hannahan instead for a fraction of the cost and he's working out very well.

What they gave up for Soto was one-half season of having to watch Nix and Valbuena attempting to play 3rd base in place of Peralta. It was brutal but it didn't matter since they were playing for 4th place. Trading the last half of Peralta's 2010 season for a 19-year-old lefty with four pitches and a major league upside was a win from the beginning, and it's only going to get better.

By the way, Peralta is off to a great start for perhaps the first time in his career. A notoriously slow starter, he's hitting .305 with an OPS of .882. He's on pace for 24 HRs and 91 RBI, which would be the best year of his career. And he's still only 28. It was a good trade for both teams, assuming the Tribe would never have signed Jhonny to a $5 million deal.

I still think it was a 'draw'. I know others say it would never have happened but still feel the Tribe would have been better off keeping Peralta, declining his option, then offering arby. We'd have a sandwich pick inbetween the 1st and 2nd round right now had we done that. Would that prospect be better than Soto? meh, no guarantee...but in this draft, that extra pick would look o so good right now. O well. Do like Sota a lot so can't complain about the trade.

criznit2009 wrote:what a night for Soto 7IP 3H 1BB 8K!! Really starting to like this kid!

The Indians trade of Jhonny Peralta to the tigers for Giovanni Soto, a 19 year old, 6'3 155 pound string bean lefty with five pitches, didn't look like much at the time of the trade. If anything, it was called a salary dump and was so panned by the less than optimistic Friends of the Feather. Since then, Gio has added 25 pounds of muscle and has raised his FB velo from the mid 80's to the low 90's while maintaining good command of four pitches for his age.. You can't ever have enough pitching..and you certainly can't ever have enough lefty starters of Soto's projected caliber. At the start of this season, he was ranked the 27th best prospect in the Indians system by our group of 17 amateurs.. his star is on the rise.. While it would be "homer-esque" to call this trade in favor or the Indians, the trade is moving more towards a "draw", imho...

Soto has pitched great this year and is a real prospect in my opinion, but he is not pitching in the low 90's (unless the gun is wrong in Kinston). His fastball is normally in the 86-88 range.